Sports

Last spring Sarah Lautman (Engr’15), a chemical and biological engineering major from Massachusetts, joined the women’s lacrosse team as a walk-on — and came up big during the team’s inaugural season, scoring game-winning overtime goals three times. Lautman was one of four CU players to tally at least 25 goals as the Buffs went 11-8 in 2014, their first season as a varsity sport.

In its first meeting ever with Colorado State, Buffs’ soccer prevailed 2-0 over the Rams, who are coached by former CU coach Bill Hempen…Junior Arielle Roberson led CU women’s basketball in scoring and rebounding last year, but will miss the 2014-15 season after tearing a ligament in her left knee. She also missed the 2011-12 season due to a hip injury…Former CU basketball standout Bob Jeangerard (Mgmt’55) was posthumously inducted into CU’s Athletic Hall of Fame…Former CU football coach Dan Hawkins will coach the U.S. senior national team in the 2015 American football world championships in Stockholm, Sweden, July 4-18.

Shalaya Kipp (IntPhys, Psych’14) capped her CU track & field career by finishing fifth in the NCAA Championship’s 3,000-meter steeplechase and earning All-American honors for the 10th time in her career, including four times in the steeplechase.

Conor McGahey became the public address announcer for home CU football games in 2011, succeeding Alan Cass (A&S ex’63, HonDocHum’99), who retired after 50 years of making calls for CU sporting events — including almost 30 years of CU football. McGahey, 29, works full-time for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment as associate producer for game presentation for the Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Mammoth.

At the CU Sports Performers of the Year celebration, volleyball player Taylor Simpson was named Female Athlete of the Year for 2013-14, while basketball forward Josh Scott and skier Rune Oedegaard shared the men’s honor…

The CU football team is headed east this fall! For the first time in school history, the Buffs are taking on the UMass Minutemen in Gillette Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 6. The matchup marks the farthest mainland road trip the team has ever made.

Rick Reilly (Jour’81), an ESPN columnist since 2008 and writer at Sports Illustrated for 23 years prior, will be inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in June.

Despite losing top scorer Spencer Dinwiddie to a season-ending knee injury in January, the men’s basketball team qualified for its third consecutive NCAA Tournament, an unprecedented feat in program history.

Four or five seasons ago, the thought of both the CU men’s and women’s basketball teams being simultaneously ranked in the top 20 in the nation would have been laughable. But no one was laughing as 2014 dawned with both programs in just such positions.

Chip, CU’s costumed mascot, has performed at sporting events and university and community activities since the 1980s. We recently caught up with Ethan, a Chip, who is identified only by first name to preserve his anonymity.

Traditionally, cu football head coaches haven’t fared well in their first game, but Mike MacIntyre proved to be the exception. When he led CU over Colorado State 41-27, he became the second Buff head coach in 81 years to win in his CU debut.

CU Volleyball Sets Victories Liz Kritza had gone without a victory over a nationally ranked opponent in her first 4.5 seasons as volleyball coach. But in an eight-day span, the Buffs knocked off two nationally ranked programs — No. 11-ranked UCLA and No. 1-ranked Washington.

Athletic administrator Ceal Barry, the winningest women’s basketball coach in school history, completed her 30th year at CU-Boulder. Last summer she served as interim athletic director after the departure of Mike Bohn and before the hiring of Rick George.